The most fun on 16 legs

Pete Murdock, left, and his wife, Traci, work with their 6-year-old Australian Cattle Dog Cyan and 3-year-old Border Collie Roulette during the flyball competition Friday.

That’s how they’re billing the four-dog-per-teamflyball relay races here at the Reliant Park dog shows, which run through Sunday (flyball races and all) and are open to the public.

Add another two legs — yours – -and the tout is pretty much true. I had a blast at this adrenaline-charged event, which is held in a separate, closed-off room filled with excited yelps that add to the atmosphere. It’s as noisy as a prize fight.

Pseudonymous local bloggerSedosi Alhambra sent a comment pointing me toward the flyball competition yesterday, and I’m glad he did. On his blog, he described the event as

“drag racing (complete with Christmas Tree [stop-and-go lights]) with hurdles and a pack of hyped-up pups. Oh, and there are tennis balls involved.”

Indeed there are. The tennis balls reside at the far end of the racing lane, inside a wooden box with the sloping profile of an old-fashioned school desk. When the racing dog hits the slanted front panel — often with a sharp, alarming “bang!” — the impact triggers a spring release pedal, which pumps the tennis ball out. The dog catches the yellow ball in the air and charges back down the lane, where its owner is likely to be jumping and caterwauling and waving a tug toy madly around.

“Anything that motivates your dog!” explained flyball enthusiast and trainer Tracy Murdock, who is from Dallas. One woman she knows dandles her dog’s food bowl as an incentive to hurry. Others encourage their dogs to clamp down on a long, sturdy tug rope, whereupon they swing the dog in delirious air circles as a reward.

There are lots of medium-sized, compact herding dogs in the flyball races — Australian Shepherds, Border Collies and the like — because they’re naturally fast. But, as flyball boosters love to point out, any dog can play. Big, small, of dubious pedigree, it just doesn’t matter. If the dog can jump the hurdles, grab the ball and get to the finish line, it can be a star.

“Half these dogs are rescue dogs,” said Tracy Murdock. She cleared up the mystery of why each four-dog team seemed to include one notably small dog. The height of the hurdles, she told me, is set to accommodate the smallest dog on the team, which makes having a small dog an advantage. I had gawked in amazement as one tiny Dachshund charged down the course, straining to clear the barriers. He did fine, and entertained me mightily. As did a Boston Terrier whose spring and rhythm over the hurdles was beautiful to watch.

Tracy claimed to know a Yorkie, “not more than 2 pounds,” who throws himself at the ball box and manages to trigger the spring release.” I’d like to see that.

As I watched the pell-mell proceedings, an idea formed. “I want my dogs to learn this,” I thought to myself. Tracy Murdock, who teaches dogs the sport in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, told me that Houston, too, is a flyball hotbed, and that there are lots of clubs where dogs train and practice. She mentioned the Lone Star Ruffnecks, the host team for Friday’s flyball event.

“You don’t have to have a fast dog,” she insisted. The larger clubs sort their teams out by speed, so a novice dog or a slower dog will compete with his or her own ilk. (I guess that means that even my dowager duchess, Blossom the Red Heeler, would be welcome, although I can only imagine that she would park herself at the start line and stare balefully at the tumult.)

Stuff can go wrong in mid-race, of course. I saw one speed demon Australian Shepherd, who tended to yelp hysterically at his teammates, lose focus halfway down the home stretch and just amble off course, as if to say, “What am I doing here?” Another tiny dog lost its hold on the ball near the ball box, made as if to go back for it, and then just gave up, as if to say, “Nah.” He did everything but shrug.

I saw one dog, in mad pursuit of an escaping ball, skid right through the low curtains marking off the course, nabbing it at the feet of a startled family of three.

Tracy and her husband, Pete, had their veteran flyball dogs Cyan and Roulette in tow. “It’s addictive,” they said of their chosen sport. Cyan had recently accumulated 20,000 points, a big milestone in the flyball world. “She’s a therapy dog, too,” Tracy said proudly.

“You want to know what the world record is for all four dogs to complete the course? ” asked Tracy. “15.22 seconds.”

I did the math, dividing by four, and I’m still having trouble imagining that.